1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope and to a method of assembling an endoscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscopes containing control wires within Bowden cables that are pulled to steer a bending section at the distal end of the endoscope are well known. The loads in the controls wires are transferred to control wheels within a handle, and in a traditional endoscope this is achieved by a chain attached to the ends of the control wires passing over a sprocket attached to the control wheel. A problem with this arrangement is that it is expensive.
As an alternative it has been proposed to use wires directly attached to a pulley, but problems then exist with the management of the wires as they are unwrapped from, and re-wrapped to, the pulley to ensure that they remain free from tangles.